STRENGTH OF EMPIRE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 799, 21 October 1929, Page 16

STRENGTH OF EMPIRE

WAR IMPOSSIBLE ADDRESS BY MR. W. J. JORDAN “The strength of the Empire is the independence of its respective parts,” said Mr. W. J. Jordan, M.P., when addressing members of both Houses of Parliament recently on the Canadian Conference of Empire Parliamentary delegates, which he attended. “At the conference there were men who had fought against our Empire, but who now are supporters of it,” he | said. He instanced certain South j African statesmen who are Boers but I who are sincere in their support of j the Empire since the Union of South j Africa has complete autonomy, j Mr. Jordan told of a South African j delegate to the conference who, as a I Boer commandant, had taken prisoner j a party of Canadian troopers. He j | took a pair of top boots from one) i prisoner, and, while he was in Canada | | this Boer, who was a colonel in the j [Great War and received the D.S.O. j from the King, sought out the trooper j and offered to pay him for the boots. “We are a Commonwealth of Na- ! tions bound together by ties of com-1 . mon interests—independent nations ] between which war is impossible,” | ' continued Mr. Jordan. "As we ex- : tend the Empire the peace of the [ world w-ill be strengthened. The j feeling in Canada is that the people ! * of the United States have interests i common with the British Empire, and | ; that war between the countries of! North America cannot eventuate.” : ’ Mr. Jordan stated that Canada, the - Irish Free State and South Africa I i were as decidedly British as Britain, j , New Zealand and Australia and other : parts of the Empire. The interest j

of each was bound with the interest of the other. Mr. Jordan also spoke of the claims made by the delegates from India for a large measure of self-government It was evident that there were two schools in India, he said, one of which claimed dominion status and the other complete separation. The report of the Simon Commission was awaited with anxiety in many circles m India and England.